Posts Tagged ‘film’
Stills #02
Stills from Yasujiro Ozu’s Equinox Flower, 1958. This was Ozu’s first film done in color and he was already a master at it. This is just a little proof as to why I regard Ozu as one of the 3 greatest directors of all time.
Eric Rohmer
Rohmer was a brilliant director and writer whose work helped push the language of cinema in leaps and bounds. Eric Rohmer died today, he was 89, RIP.
Happy New Year!
I just wanted to quickly say happy new year to everyone and thank you for all the support this year. To end the year I wanted to highlight one of my favorite blogs that I started following in ‘09, I Love Hotdogs, and their Best of 100 Films post.
OSCAR / IMPROVISATION 1 by Hedi Slimane
I don’t really know anything about this other than it’s on Hedi Slimane’s website and it’s pretty cool. You can also see more of Hedi Slimane and his collection American Youth in our new magazine.
“We Were Once A Fairy Tale” by Spike Jonze and Kanye West
You might have seen this already but if you haven’t go ahead and have some fun with this. This is definitely Spike Jonze’s hour right now. I would like to talk about this more and analyze the video some more but I’m posting from my phone so I’m kind of limited as of the moment but feel free to comment and I’ll look at it when I can.
Temporary Copenhagen
Vincent Moon’s latest project, Temporary Copenhagen, is a real treat. If I try to explain it I will mess it up so I’ll let Moon explain it for you, “A 30min piece we created on the spot. 9 local bands, only 3 i knew, 2 hours to organise something before the audience arrives, and the objective to create a unique sound piece, a collaborative concert which would be moving in an intimate space. Only one take, no cuts, loads of tension, maybe an interesting talk between cinema and music where each one feeds the other one. And a certain idea of a document on a city and its creative life.”
You can check out more footage at Temporary Copenhagen
Tracklist:
Slaraffenland opening with ‘Falling Out’
Efterklang following with Mirror Mirror’
Sad Lovers performing ‘Bring in the Light’
Thulebasen slowly entering with ‘Extract’
Valby Vokalgruppe ritualising ‘Gøgen fra Kina’
Chimes and Bells exchanging ‘You shall not pass’
Murder bringing ‘Providence’ to life
Jong Pang exciting his ‘New Order’
Choir of Young Believers ending with ‘Yamagata’
Interview with Aziz Ansari
Many people are just now getting to see a rising star in the comedy world. Aziz Ansari has been making a name for himself for years now with his standup tours and his MTV show Human Giant, which he made with Ron Huebel, Paul Scheer, and Jason Woliner. Ansari is now reaching much bigger audiences in primetime as Tom Haverford, the slick assistant in NBC’s Parks and Recreation. You probably saw him in other shows as well such as ABC’s Scrubs and HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. This summer also saw Ansari take on the role of Randy, a young upstart comic in Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Ansari was one person I really wanted for Letter to Jane’s interview series, and if you’ve seen his standup before you know why. His timing and ability to react and improvise display a great natural talent. Ansari’s delivery and insights showcase his hard work and dedication. It was a pleasure to be able to talk with Ansari about his current projects and what the future has in store for him.
Hello, now most people now know you as Tom Haverford, Amy Poehler’s sidekick in the NBC comedy, Parks and Recreations. I recently read Poehler comment that her character Leslie wasn’t necessarily dumb, but rather didn’t have the charisma to get the job done. I kind of view your character Tom as kind of the opposite of that, but I was wondering if you could describe your character to us?
AZIZ ANSARI: I think he’s smart and knows the game, but he’s kind of an idiot in social ways. He also loves the ladies, but is maybe a little overeager and puts himself at risk of sexual harassment lawsuits on a regular basis.
Parks and Recreation just started it’s second season and the reviews have been good, most notably for starting to include social issues instead of just focusing on the pit which was the main plot of last season. Is this a sign of a new direction for the show?
AZIZ ANSARI: No, I think in general the show is just finding itself more. If you watch any great sitcoms like Seinfeld, The Office, or whatever, you notice the show takes a while to really figure out what it is. I think with all the hype around our show, we were under a magnifying glass from the get go. Bottom line, season two is great and much stronger than season one. I wouldn’t say that unless I believed it. If I was promoting The Mentalist, I would tell you season two of The Mentalist is a huge disappointment.
With the introduction of new shows and the return of Jay Leno, do you feel any pressure from NBC or do you feel you’ll be given time to grow just as the other shows such as 30 Rock or The Office had?
AZIZ ANSARI: We got a second season, so I feel like the network is behind us.
You wrote on your MTV show Human Giant, are there any chances of you picking up the pen again for Parks?
AZIZ ANSARI: Perhaps, right now I’m pretty lazy though. The writers are great about hearing out our ideas and we also improvise and rewrite on set sometimes, so for now I’m content with my input.
I want to ask you about Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Your character Randy seemed to represent everything that’s wrong in standup. What were some of those things in stand up right now that you or Apatow wanted to satirize with this character?
AZIZ ANSARI: It was never really a calculated attack on standup. I just liked the notion of a guy with a Soulja Boy-like demeanor being a standup. Hence the DJ, the catchphrases, endless merchandising, etc. Randy to me is a guy who saw a Def Jam special and went – oh that’s easy; I’ll jump around and yell about my dick. I don’t think all those Def Jam guys stink by any means, but I can see someone watching that and thinking standup is much easier than it actually is.
As a marketing campaign for the film there were these mini-documentaries you made for the Randy character and they’re really great (I’m laughing right now thinking about the DJ’s 3 rules to live by). Were these all your doing or did have Apatow have any hand in these?
AZIZ ANSARI: Myself and Jason Woliner (director from Human Giant) wrote them. Jason directed and Judd was an Executive Producer on it. He trusted us to make it good and I think we pulled it off.
You still do stand up regularly; do you still include Randy into the mix?
AZIZ ANSARI: I’m doing standup a lot to try to put together a new act before my standup special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, comes out in January on Comedy Central. Right now, no Randy in the mix, but I’m not opposed to bringing him out in the future. I need to write a new Aziz act before I write a new Randy one!
Is there going to be another stand up tour to follow up your Glow in the Dark tour? And how did you get Kanye to let you use the name of his tour, because you guys weren’t friends at the time right?
AZIZ ANSARI: I hope I can do another tour. It’s hard with our filming schedule. I just called Kanye and asked him and he said he thought it was funny and was cool with it.
I used to work at a music studio and my friends and I somehow always wound up debating over some facet of Kanye’s life. It’s kind of sad because it wasn’t cool things like girls, parties, cars etc, but more about lame domestic things, like what it’s like just being friends with the guy. So is he the kind of guy you go grab a pizza and rent a Will Ferrell movie or when you’re around Kanye is it like a music video? (Side note: I have money on this depending on your answer).
AZIZ ANSARI: The times I’ve hung out with him, we’ve always been on a hovercraft with a bunch of models and champagne.
Thank you, I want to end the interview by asking if you could talk about your upcoming film, Get Him to the Greek and your role in the film.
AZIZ ANSARI: Sure. First off, that movie is going to be hilarious. Russell Brand plays his character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow, and Jonah Hill plays a guy who works at a record label that has to get him from London to LA to do a show at the Greek. It’s a really hard hitting road comedy that they are going to knock out of the park. Myself and Nick Kroll (along with a few other comedy buddies of ours) play Jonah’s co-workers. It’s a small part, but it was really fun. Our boss, Sergio, is played by none other than Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and he killed.
Well Thank you for talking with us, congrats and good luck on the new season.
AZIZ ANSARI: Ok, I’m going to go make some oatmeal now, thanks for the interview!
(Aziz Ansari is a comedian/actor who currently resides in Los Angeles CA. You can catch him on Parks & Recreation on NBC on Thursdays and on his website Aziz is Bored)
Polanski’s List of Shame
The arrest of Roman Polanski was supposed to end one of the ugliest chapters in film history, but instead it has opened the door for something much worse. Polanski’s life story has been one of great tragedy and shame and one that most are familiar with by now. So with his arrest I thought there would be a sigh of relief in our society that this man will finally be sentenced for his actions, but to my disgust I find that it has instead opened up a debate of ignorance and disbelief. We are supposed to be the generation that finally has educated the world on what exactly constitutes as rape and the evils of it, hell, we’re the ones who have a show called, “To Catch a Predator” in prime time. However, throughout the week there have been a multitude of people coming to the defense of Polanski, so I would briefly like to re-educate those out there that read this why exactly this man deserves no defense.
There has been an argument that he’s a great artist and that it happened in the past so that we should let it go. His art has nothing to do with his life, that’s a fact, get over it. Chinatown is one of my favorite films of all time and my reasoning for that is because it is a great film on it’s own. Once someone creates something and shares it with people that creation becomes it’s own entity and is judged on it’s own merits. Many still love the “On the Waterfront” even though Eli Kazan named names. As for the passing of time, I find that ridiculous. We have prosecuted Nazi war criminals, who were brilliant men who did heinous and evil acts, and were judged for them regardless of the amount of time in between the trial and the crime.
There are those that want to say that the tragic loss of his family is punishment enough, again I cannot justify this argument. My own father was tragically killed when I four. While it was a horrible thing, it does not give me a right to go steal a car now that I’m twenty four. I would be tried in court for my actions.
The last argument is that the victim has dropped charges and is now okay with the incident. No matter what she says it is still rape. It doesn’t matter if the sex was consensual, she was thirteen, and he was an adult who drugged her and had sex with her. Even if they were sober, HE HAD SEX WITH HER. She is not old enough to consent, he was old enough to know better, it was rape.
Now I was foolish enough I guess to believe that this was common knowledge these days, unfortunately it is not. What is even more sad is the petition of over a hundred filmmakers, actors, and actresses requesting for the release of Polanski and trying to revise him as some sort of political prisoner. He is not a political prisoner, he is a imprisoned for the abuse of human rights. It saddens me deeply that so many people I respect are on this list, and honestly there is no way I can rationalize their names on this list. There are people on this list that have made their careers championing human rights and have rallied against suffering and abuse throughout the world, and then they turn around and become complete hypocrites. There are many who have denounced the Blacklist of the 1950’s which ruined so many people’s lives in the film business and have scorned those who named names during that time. Well this petition is a new list of shames. With the Blacklist entertainers outed their fellow workers. This time with the Polanski petition, they outed themselves.
The List:
Erika Abrams, Fatih Akin, Yves Alberty, Stephane Allagnon, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Gianni Amelio, Wes Anderson, Michel Andrieu, Roger Andrieux, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Frédéric Aranzueque-Arrieta, Alexandre Arcady, Fanny Ardant, Asia Argento, Marie-Hélène Arnau, Darren Aronofsky, Olivier Assayas, Alexander Astruc, Gabriel Auer, Zdzicho Augustyniak, Alexandre Babel, Fausto Nicolás Balbi, Eleonor Baldwin, Jean-François Balmer, Alberto Barbera Museo nazionale de Torino, Luc Barnier, Christophe Barratier, Carmen Bartl, Pascal Batigne, Anne Baudry, Juan Antonio Bayona, Xavier Beauvois, Liria Begeja, Gilles Behat, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Marco Bellochio, Yannick Bellon, Monica Bellucci, Véra Belmont, Jean-Marc Benguigui, Djamel Bennecib, Luc Béraud, Jacob Berger, Alain Berliner, Gael Garcia Bernal, Pascal Berney, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Marlène Bisson, Arnstein Bjørkly, Lucien Blacher, Catherine Boissière, Olivier Bonnet, Thierry Boscheron, Freddy Bossy, Patrick Bouchitey, Cédric Bouchoucha, Paul Boujenah, Frédéric Bourboulon, Katia Boutin, Jacques Bral, Sophie Bramly, Paulo Branco, Patrick Braoudé, Guila Braoudé, Isabelle Broué, Merima Bruncevic, Anne Burki, André Buytaers, Anthony Byrne, Marco Cacioppo, Gerald Calderon, Monica Cannizzaro, Christian Carion, Henning Carlsen, Jean-Michel Carré, Lionel Cassan (Membre de l’équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski “The Ghost”), Mathieu Celary, Teco Celio, Muriel Cerf, Chagi, Daniel Champagnon, Christophe Champclaux, Fabienne Chauveau, Claire Chazal, Patrice Chéreau, Brigitte Chesneau, Mishka Cheyko, Catherine Chiono, Catherine Chouchan, Elie Chouraqui, Souleymane Cissé, Jean-Pierre Clech, Henri Codenie, Ethan Coen, Robert Cohen, Jean-Paul Commin, Anne Consigny, Alain Cophignon, Alain Corneau, Jérôme Cornuau, Guy Courtecuisse, Miguel Courtois, Guillaume Cousin, Morgan Crestel, Dominique Crevecoeur, Penelope Cruz, Alfonso Cuaron, Estelle Cywje, Frédéric Damien, Sophie Danon, Olivier Dard, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Hervé de Luze, Valérie de Saint-Do, Guillermo del Toro, Benoît Delmas, Jonathan Demme, Ruud den Dryver, Dante Desarthe, Romain Desbiens, Thomas Desjonquères, Alexandre Desplat, Chris Devi, Rosalinde et Michel Deville, Guillaume D’Ham, Christelle Didier, Kathrin DiPaola, Claire Dixsaut, Ariel Dorfman, Jean Douchet, Fabrice du Welz, Marina Duarte Nunes Ferreira, Georges Dybman, Daniel Edinger, Elrem, Sam Enoch, Ernest, Jacques Fansten, Joël Farges, Gianluca Farinelli (Cinémathèque de de Bologne), Etienne Faure, Michel Ferry, Jean Teddy Filippe, Aurélie Fiorentino, Alan Fischer, Martine Fitoussi, Sebastian Fleischhacker, Joy Fleury, Scott Foundas, Werner Fraai, Stephen Frears, Thierry Frémaux, Marc Freycon, Sam Gabarski, René Gainville, Matteo Garone, Yves Gasser, Tony Gatlif, Catherine Gaudin-Montalto, Jean-Marc Gauthier, Costa Gavras, Nathalie Geiser, Lizi Gelber, Isabelle Gély, Jean-Marc Ghanassia, Alain Gil, Véronique Gillet, Terry Gilliam, Christian Gion, François Girault, Stéphane Gizard, Carlos Miguel Bernardo González, Christophe Goumand, Eric Gravereau, Philippe Gruss, Marc Guidoni, Mikael Håfström, Ronald Harwood, Dimitri Haulet, Buck Henry, David Heyman, Laurent Heynemann, Dominique Hollier, Isabelle Hontebeyrie, Frédéric Horiszny, Robert Hossein, Jean-Loup Hubert, Wendy Hudson Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gilles Jacob, Eric et Veronique et Nicolas Jacquelin, Just Jaeckin, Thomas Jahn, Olivia Janik, Jean-Baptiste Jay, Anne Jeandet, Alain Jessua, Sébastien Jimenez, Arthur Joffé, Pierre Jolivet, Kent Jones (World Cinema Foundation), Alexandra Julen, Paola Jullian, Roger Kahane, Pierre Kalfon, Reena Kanji, Nelly Kaplan, Wong Kar Waï, Darius Khondji, Ladislas Kijno, Richard Klebinder, Jonathan Klein, Harmony Korinne, Jan Kounen, Sylvia Kristel, Diane Kurys, Emir Kusturica, Jean Labadie, Eliane Lacroux, Michel Laigle, Stéphane Lam, John Landis, Claude Lanzmann, David Lanzmann, André Larquié, Pauline Larrieu, Jacques et Françoise Lassalle, Carole Laure, Christine Laurent-Blixen, Emilien Lazaron, Eric Le Roy, Fábio Leal, Vinciane Lecocq, Patrice Leconte, Linda Lefebvre, Claude Lelouch, Alain Lenglet, Gérard Lenne, Larry Levine, Lorraine Lévy, Pierre et Renée Lhomme, Marceline Loridan-Ivens, catalina Lozano, Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski, Laurence Lustyk, David Lynch, Bania Madjbar, Laurent Malet, Tim Malieckal, Guy Malugani, Michael Mann, Yvon Marciano, François Margolin, Jean-Pierre Marois, Tonie Marshall, Alain Martin, Sandrine Martin, Didier Martiny, Mario Martone, Christine Mathis, Esmeralda Mattei, Nicolas Mauvernay, Yannick Mazet, Christopher, Spencer et Claire Mc Andrew, Guillermo Menaldi, Frédéric Mermoud, Allison Michel, Radu Mihaileanu, Jean-Louis Milesi, Claude Miller, Lionel Miniato, Nelly Moaligou, Jean-Marc Modeste, Mario Monicelli, Jeanne Moreau, Gael Morel, Omayra Muñiz Fernández, Stephanie Murat, Christian Mvogo Mbarga, Anna N.Levine, Charles Nemes, Juliette Nicolas-Donnard, Sandra Nicolier, Rachel Noël, Rui Nogueira, Olivier Nolin, Michel Ocelot, David Ogando, Mariana Oliveira Santos, Szentgyörgyi Ottó, Martine Pagès, Eric Pape, Abner Pastoll, Alexander Payne, Richard Pena, Olivier Père, Suzana Peric, Jacques Perrin, Thomas Pibarot, Arnaud Pierrichon, Stéphane Pietri, Anne Pigeon Bormans, Claude Pinoteau, Michele Placido, Sabrina Poidevin, Agnès Catherine Poirier, Stéphane Pozderec, Harry Prenger, Gilbert Primet, Marie-Hélène Raby, Philippe Radault, Tristan Rain, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Brett Ratner, Raphael Rebibo, Jo Reymen, Laurence Reymond, Yasmina Reza, Christiane Rhein, Jacques Richard, Dominique Robert, Jean-Jacques Rochut, Yannick Rolandeau, Paul Rondags, Avital Ronell, Graciela Rosato, Kontochristopoulou Roula, Laurence Roulet, Joshua Rout, Florence Rphael, Isabelle Ruh, Martin Ruhe, Sonia Rykiel, Anita S. Chang, Esteban S. Goffin, Marc Saffar, Gabriela Salazar Scherman, Walter Salles, Jean-Paul Salomé, Jean-Frédéric Samie, Marc Sandberg, Léo Scalpel, Jerry Schatzberg, Georg Schmithüsen, Julian Schnabel, Barbet Schroeder, J. Neil Schulman, Pierre Schumacher, Ettore Scola, Luis Gustavo Sconza Zaratin Soares, Martin Scorsese, Andrea Sedlackova, Frank Segier, Guy Seligmann, Lorenzo Semple Jr, Julien Seri, Boris Shlafer, Antoine Silber, Pierre Silvant, Charlotte Silvera, Noel Simsolo, Christophe Sirodeau, Abderrahmane Sissako, Beatrice Sisul Petter Skavlan, Paolo Sorrentino, Roch Stephanik, Karen Stetler, Guillaume Stirn, Jean-Marc Surcin, Tilda Swinton, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Radovan Tadic, Danis Tanovic, Bertrand Tavernier, André Techiné, Cécile Telerman, Harold Alvarado Tenorio, Alain Terzian, Valentine Theret, Virginie Thévenet, Pascal Thomas, Jeremy Thomas, Marc Thomas Charley, Giuseppe Tornatore, Serge Toubiana, Nadine Trintignant, Julie Turcas, Mitja Tušek, Tom Tykwer, Alexandre Tylski, Stephen Ujlaki, Jaques Vallotton, Phil van der Linden, Betrand Van Effenterre, Leopold Van Genechten, Christophe van Rompaey, Dorna van Rouveroy, Vangelis, Christian Verdu, Jean-Pierre Vergne, Sarah Vermande, Marc Villemain, Jean-François Villemer, Daria Vinault, Thomas Vossart, Gilles Walusinski, Eric Watton, Wim Wenders, Anaïse Wittmann, A Wolanin, Arnaud Xainte, Serge Youbiana, Paule Zajdermann, Christian Zeender.
“American Youth” Curated by Hedi Slimane
The French film company Mk2 and Hedi Slimane have collaborated to release one of the best curated collection of films I may have ever seen. “American Youth” chronicles teen films from the 1950’s to the present. Some of them are well known classics, (Rebel Without a Cause, Woodstock) and some lesser known gems that never got the credit they deserved, (Rumble Fish, Zabriskie Point). The limited edition set includes packaging designed by Hedi Slimane and includes his photography. Look for a more in depth review when Letter to Jane Magazine comes out in early November. The set will be released November 18th.
Calling all Contributors: Letter to Jane Magazine
Letter to Jane is very happy to announce that the first issue of our magazine will be available online for free in late October/early November (exact date not set yet). If I had to guess I would say the project is about 80% done and that’s on purpose. We want to include YOU and your talents. Letter to Jane was started not to tell others what to like or dislike but to share common interests. So if you’re interested email us and we will try to get you into this issue or future releases.
David Parker for Comme des Garcons
David Parker created this animated short for Daphne Guinness and Comme des Garcons’ new fragrance, DAPHNE. The video, titled Mnemosyne, is one of the better films to come from a fashion label in a while. It’s really quite good take a look.
SNAKESWEAT by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Still trying to get back up to speed from the week off, here’s another gem:
Montparnasse-Levallois by Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
Thank you to T.A. Pattinson for sending this to me via Facebook.
Nike SB – Debacle
I tried to get some work done today, but it is just too hot. So as I was browsing BOOOOOOOM and found the link to the new skate video Debacle from Nike Skateboarding. It’s in full HD and you can download the entire video for free until July 24th so go grab it quick and take a break.
The Fashion Video, the Usual Embarrassment of a Brand
They always start to pour out in Spring/Summer, and I’ve always wondered why. Fashion videos, surprise collaborations with musicians, and other attention grabbers that have nothing to do with the clothes always seem to follow the release of the Spring/Summer Men’s collections. Is it because they know we don’t care as much? That men in general don’t need to buy a new suit every season? Is it all a ploy to get us to buy more? Or is there an effort to boast their pure artistic side, to gain respect from artists and show that fashion labels aren’t just a business? I don’t have the answer to these questions, I just know that with all the narrative short films from fashion labels that I see a year, there are probably only two that are decent. I started to become curious this year about the reasons behind that. How is it that a label can create the most mature and artistic creation on the runway and have the most immature and juvenile art represent those clothes elsewhere? My quick guess is that it has to do with image, where style is necessary, not content. A lot of videos (I’m thinking of Chanel right now) are pure style with nothing else, not even good product placement involved, it’s like an Oliver Stone film ran amuck usually. A lot of quick editing, extreme camera angles, troubled models living the hard life of success but can’t figure out how to have sex until their fashion label shows them the way. It’s all very embarrassing and thankfully you have brands like Band of Outsiders who consistently create brilliant, simple videos to display their brand.
Another brand that usually never disappoints is Yves Saint Laurent. With their Spring/Summer 2010 collection they produced a film from Samuel Benchetrit that follows a young boy, (Benchetrit’s son) who finds a hotel room key and takes on the life of a stranger. The film is simple and charming and very refreshing. It is a direct tribute to the classic french type of films that France is known for. The film I really felt it mimicked the most was François Truffaut’s first film Les Mistons where a group of kids develop a crush on an older woman. In the YSL film the boy works around the concept of desire. He goes through the strangers belongings, plays dress up, and reads his personal letters from the stranger’s lover. In the end, the boy reunites a couple without either of them knowing really. Maybe it was because he is just a child and adults are too wrapped up in life to resolve our own problems with love. The child can’t yet see the levels of miscommunication that come with age. The boy wishes to be an adult and the adults wish to be with each other, kind of cliche I can admit but it’s filmed in such a simple and honest way that doesn’t insult your intelligence such as the Alexander McQueen video I posted earlier. The odd thing is that I wasn’t really a fan of the collection but thought the video was great. In general, this shows the continued effort at YSL to display a level of refinement and maturity while not becoming stuffy or old fashioned.
Yves Saint Laurent Collection Homme Printemps/Eté 2010 – Film.
Yves Saint Laurent Collection Homme Printemps/Eté 2010 – Film. from official ysl on Vimeo.
Les Mistons by François Truffaut
CUT the movie
One of the latest projects to be going around the internet right now is a short film brought to you by Women’s Aid that stars Keira Knightley. The first is for a charity cause to raise awareness about domestic violence. I’ve heard a lot of reactions about this surrounding the violence, some are praising the film for bringing awareness while some are afraid of the film packaging violence as entertainment because of the nature of the industry as it exists. I must say that I can’t see this being taken as entertaining. I am a very cold individual to films. After you study them for so long, the critical side of you takes over the emotional, but I had a very hard time with some of this. This is a very effective campaign for a good cause so check out the film and check out Women’s Aid.
Letter to Jane TV: Here and Elsewhere (1976) by Jean-Luc Godard
Here is a film I had lying around so I figured I would share it as well. Ici et Aillures is a very difficult film but will be very interesting to fans.
I found a great write up on the film by Derek Smith, here’s an excerpt from it:
“In 1970, Godard, along with Jean-Pierre Gorin and the Dziga Vertov Group, was commissioned by Al Fatah, the militant Palestinian group, to shoot a documentary. When the film was approximately two-thirds complete, production was halted since many of the Palestinians they had been filming had been killed. Years after the disintegration of the Dziga Vertov Group, Godard and his new collaborator Anne-Marie Mieville, whom he would work with through the 1990s, re-edited this footage into a cinematic essay exploring the failure of the original to address the reality of the images it presents.”
Click here to continue reading.
Letter to Jane’s Online Film Series: La Chinoise (1967)
The next film is Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise (1967). This film is probably the closest Godard came to success and bringing narrative film to it’s minimal properties. However, to get stuck with just simply following the story of this film will make you lose interest fast. The greater value of this film is the deconstruction of film itself. If one of Godard’s attempt with film is to study the language of film, La Chinoise tries to study the alphabet of that language. La Chinoise also blends a fictional movie with documentary content. The entire film fed into the real scene of France and showed it to the mainstream before anybody realized what would become the student riots of 1968.
To learn more about this film click here.
And remember to visit Letter to Jane’s channel on YouTube and please support it by subscribing. If you have any suggestions for it please let us know.
Letter to Jane, The Channel, has launched!
Letter to Jane now has it’s own channel on YouTube! This channel will bring you rare and important films from around the world. The first film on the list is Jean-Luc Godard’s film La Chinoise. So click Here or on the image above to check it out.
Letter to Jane’s Online Film Series: L’Eclisse (1962)
Well If you haven’t noticed lately I’ve been posting a lot of films that I find online. I really want to expand this so I’ve made it an official part of the site. Today’s film which I found on youtube in HD is in my top 3 films of all time, Michelangelo’s L’Eclisse (1962),
And just to recap so far I’ve posted
Simon of the Desert – Luis Bunuel
Letter to Jane by Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Pierre Gorin (1972)
I was bored the other night as I’m still recovering from illness, and started to do random google searches and I noticed that this site is moving up in search engines. While I’m thankful that there are more people viewing the site as of late, I didn’t want this site to overshadow the inspiration of it’s creation.
This short film by some of the greatest minds in film, Jean-Luc Godard and Jean Pierre Gorin (who operated through the Dziga Vertov Group) made a film that is in no way great, or could ever be considered as “the best.” It is probably the biggest influence that went into this site. As I wrote in the ABOUT section on the day I launched the site, that what I want to discuss is the role of an artist in the terms of consumer/producer. Letter to Jane, in all it’s references, is around to show that the construct of the modes of operation are the true roles of art and society, not an instant gratificaiton of meaning. I wanted to move away from the usual artist discussion based on integrity, true art, high art, fine art, bs-art, etc. I wanted to talk about how art is a part of society because we are all consumers/producers. Our role in life is also the same role taken in art. This is no way a revolutionary site because I believe that term is dated and has been made redundant. The film asked the question of role do intellectuals and artists play in the revolution. This site is my present day answer to that. We are now post-modern / post-role, in other words, embrace pop without forgetting why it’s there.
On an Arthouse kick / My new favorite site.
There’s a couple things you might have noticed about this site lately.
1) I’m making a lot of lists
2) I’m talk a lot about films these days.
A while back I mentioned that I fell in love again with film, and it’s just been getting stronger. Especially now that Criterion has created a social network of sorts for cinephiles called The Auteurs. I encourage anybody interested or curious about film to check it out. They even have films for viewing, most of them you have to pay but some are for free, including one of my favorite films of all time Closely Watched Trains, (pictured above).
So please, check it out, watch the film even, and if you want, add me as a friend.
-Tim
EDIT: you should also take a few hours and check out their online film festival that is currently playing for free.
Sick Days / Trees
Well I have been battling a pretty obnoxious head cold as of late which has just added to the frustration of work. So I decided to leave work early and go take it easy. I went and took some pictures, went home and watched a movie, then came up with a simple song… oh and I took a fairly substantial nap as well.
Here are the pictures I shot today, I know I’m obsessed with trees at the moment, but I have a good reason for it. 1) I live in Oregon 2) I haven’t had time to set up any sessions with a model 3) I was more interested in the sunlight and the trees were kind of just in the way. I’m obsessed with capturing haze and blurs of muted colors these days than with objects or subjects.
And here is the song I made today:
{Untitled Instrumental}
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And I am so thrilled that Criterion is releasing more of Bunuel’s Mexican period films, including my favorite, The Exterminating Angel. They also released a great version of Simon of the Desert. I was able to find the film online in it’s entirety, (which is only about 40 minutes). So here it is for your viewing pleasure:
-Tim
EDIT:
I just found another of Bunuel’s films from the same period online, Viridiana. Great film, it’s split into sections on youtube, but at least it was gracious uploaded in high quality, (really if you’re at all a fan it’s worth it to pick these up)
“What a dreadful 5:00 in the afternoon”
No, I’m not depressed at all today, in fact quite the opposite, I have gotten reacquainted with my first love this week, which is film, more particularly the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Jean-Luc Godard. The title is from a quote from Godard’s film Pierrot le Fou. I was watching this week again and it re-energized me in every aspect. These director’s films is what got me into art. A large part of who I am can be traced back to inspirations from films like this. That might be pathetic I don’t know, but I know it could be a lot worse so I’m okay with it all.
That quote for some reason kept getting stuck in my head no matter what I was doing, and then some kind of melody started to form with it in my head so I sat down and made a new instrumental today. I of course am going to title it “What a dreadful 5:00 in the Afternoon.” I decided to post it because I think it’s maybe a little romantic feeling (in a Cure-ish kind of way). It’s not really finished but I thought I would share it anyways.
(5 in the Afternoon, Rough Mix)
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-Tim
